Sign up to receive free email alerts when patent applications with chosen keywords are publishedSIGN UP

Abstract:

Systems and methods for building competence in employees of an
organization are described herein. In one implementation, a competence
building system includes a deliverable definition module to identify a
one or more deliverable slices associated with a work product based on a
deliverable definition. The deliverable definition indicates a plurality
of tasks that need to be completed for building the deliverable slices.
Further, a competence identification module of the competence building
system identifies a one or more competencies associated with the
deliverable slices. Furthermore, the competence identification module
identities a one or more resources to be provided to a one or more
employee, wherein the employee possesses a minimum level of competence.

Claims:

1. A system for building competence, wherein the system comprising: a
processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising,
a deliverable definition module configured to, identify at least one
deliverable slice based at least in part on a deliverable definition,
wherein the deliverable definition is indicative of a plurality of tasks;
and a competence identification module configured to, identify one or
more competencies associated with the at least one deliverable slices;
and identify, based on the identified one or more competencies, at least
one resource for providing to at least one candidate employee, wherein
the at least one candidate employee possesses a minimum level of
competencies.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the competence
identification module is further configured to identify the at least one
candidate employee based in part on the generated at least one
deliverable slice.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the competence
identification module is further configured to assess competencies of the
at least one candidate employee based in part on the at least one
resource provided to the at least one individual.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the competence
identification module is further configured to assess competencies based
in part on a performance of the at least one candidate employee.

5. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the competence
identification module identifies a certified candidate employee based on
determining the at least one candidate employee to meet an assessment
criteria.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one resource
comprises assessment based material and instruction based material.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the deliverable definition
module is further configured to parse the at least one deliverable
definition to generate the deliverable slices.

8. A method for competence building, the method comprising: receiving at
least one deliverable definition; identifying at least one deliverable
slice based on the received deliverable definition, the at least one
deliverable slice indicative of at least one task involved in
implementing the at least one deliverable slice; identifying one or more
competencies, required for delivering the at least one deliverable slice,
based on the at least one deliverable slice; and identifying at least one
candidate employee with a minimum level of competence, the identifying
based on the identified one or more competencies.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the deliverable definition
is provided by a user.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising providing one or
more resources to the at least one candidate employee based on the
deliverable slice.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising assessing the at
east candidate employee based on the providing.

12. The method as claimed on claim 8, further comprising: continuously
determining whether the minimum level of competence of the at least one
candidate employee meets a threshold acceptance criteria; and recursively
providing one or more resources to the at least one candidate employee
based on the continuously determining.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising identifying at
least one certified candidate employee based at least in part on
comparing the minimum level of competence with a threshold level of
competence.

14. A computer-readable medium having a set of computer executable
instructions that, when executed, perform acts comprising: receiving at
least one deliverable definition from a user; identifying at least one
deliverable slice based on the received deliverable definition, the at
least one deliverable slice indicative of at least one task involved in
implementing the at least one deliverable slice; identifying one or more
competencies, required for delivering the at least one deliverable slice,
based on the at least one deliverable slice; identifying at least one
candidate employee with a minimum level of competence, the identifying
based on the identified one or more competencies; and providing one or
more resources to the at least one candidate employee based on the at
least one deliverable slice.

Description:

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C.
§119 of Ravi Shankar Pillutla, Indian Patent Application Serial
Number 212/MUM/2011, entitled "COMPETENCE BUILDING SYSTEM," filed on Jan.
22, 2011, the benefit of priority of which is claimed hereby, and which
is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present subject matter relates, in general, to a training
system in an organization, and, in particular, to a competence building
system in an organization.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Organizations spend a lot of time and resources in building
competencies of their employees selected for a particular job position.
Such job positions may be specific to certain fields. For example, a
software programmer may be selected for programming in the field of the
job position. Various training systems and mechanisms are developed in
order to build these competencies in the employees. Such training
mechanisms and systems provide a structure for training the employees in
the various fields as required by the organization.

[0004] The conventional training systems and mechanisms train and provide
the knowledge of a certain field to the employee through training
sessions conducted by experts. The employee subsequently applies that
knowledge to perform the task related to the particular field for which
the employee has been trained.

SUMMARY

[0005] This summary is provided to introduce concepts related to building
of competencies based on a work product, in employees of an organization.
This summary is neither intended to identify essential features of the
claimed subject matter nor is it intended for use in determining or
limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0006] Systems and methods for building competence in employees of an
organization are described herein. In one implementation, a one or more
deliverable slices associated with a work product are identified based on
a deliverable definition. The deliverable definition indicates a
plurality of tasks that need to be completed for building the deliverable
slices. Subsequently, a one or more competencies associated with the
deliverable slices are identified. Furthermore, one or more resources to
be provided to one or more employees are identified wherein the employee
possesses a pre-defined level of competence.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE; DRAWINGS

[0007] The detailed description is described with reference to the
accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a
reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number
first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to
reference like features and components.

[0008]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network environment implementing a
competence building system, in accordance with an implementation of the
present subject matter.

[0009] FIG. 2 illustrates the competence building system, in accordance
with an implementation of the present subject matter.

[0010]FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method to build competence in an
employee of an organization, based on a deliverable slice, in accordance
with the present subject matter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The subject matter described herein relates to a competence
building system for employees of an organization. The systems and
methods, related to a competence building system, as described herein can
be implemented in a variety of computing environments, such as in a
mobile computing environment and a plurality of computing devices such as
a server, a desktop personal computer, a notebook or a portable computer,
a mainframe computer.

[0012] Various conventional training systems provide training for
increasing the competencies of employees within the organization. Such
conventional systems focus on providing the necessary knowledge to the
employees for performing a variety of tasks. The employee applies the
received knowledge onto a number of tasks to convert them to complete
work projects. The conventional systems provide a plurality of on-job as
well as classroom trainings to their employees in order to build the
required competence for a job.

[0013] Conventionally, the training systems generate training material for
the employees depending on factors, such as their job profile, past
experience, etc. For example, a software engineer may be trained in Java
programming for handling all the Java programming related projects.
However, such sort of training does not ensure that the employee would be
competent enough to handle real time projects and specific deliverables.
This primarily arises as the training delivered for the employee may not
be specific to or focused for certain work product also referred to as a
deliverable, but is general and provides a broad level of understanding
of the task at hand.

[0014] Additionally, in conventional systems, a person may be hired based
on his experience, or his project certifications, etc. These parameters,
simply assume the person to be competent in a specific field because of
his prior experience in related fields. However, such conventional
systems do not measure deliverable specific competencies of the employee.
This leads to reduced quality of the work product, re-work and training
for the deliverable, and consequently reduced productivity.

[0015] To this end, systems and methods for building competencies in
employees of an organization are described. For this, a number of
deliverable slices, that would constitute a work product (also referred
to as a deliverable), are identified. A deliverable slice can be
considered to be a part of the whole work product or the deliverable. The
deliverable slice has its own requirement specification and a context in
which it is applicable. Further, the deliverable slice requires a
plurality of tasks (also referred to as process steps) to be completed in
order to fulfill the requirements associated with that deliverable slice.
These tasks for every deliverable slice, when collectively performed
would constitute the process steps that would be required for the
completion of the entire work product or the deliverable. For example,
for a deliverable involving creation of a banking application, creation
of a web-based user-interface can be considered to be one deliverable
slice. Further, the tasks to be completed for completing the deliverable
slice web based user interface, can be, creating HTML page, Java script
validations, session management and so on.

[0016] In one implementation, a plurality of tasks can be grouped together
to fulfill a specific requirement of the requirement specification of the
deliverable slice, and such grouped tasks dictate the competencies
required for building that deliverable slice. For the above example, in
order to build the deliverable slice such as a web based user interface,
the employee must have the competence for creating the HTML page,
JavaScript validations, session management, etc.

[0017] In one implementation, the competencies with respect to the tasks
as well as the deliverable slices are in a re-usable form. For example,
creating an HTML page is a task and the competence for performing the
task can be re-used in other similar kinds of deliverable slices like web
based user interface, or login feature in the user interface. Similarly,
the deliverable slices, such as building a web based user interface, can
also be in a re-usable form which can be a part of one or more similar
kinds of work products, like banking application, or a CRM-based
application. Each deliverable slice of the entire work product or the
deliverable is built by completing the set of tasks that correspond to
certain quality characteristics defined in the requirements specification
of the deliverable slice. Further, the completion of all the deliverable
slices results in building of the entire work product or the deliverable.

[0018] In one implementation, the reusable deliverable slices can be
determined based on a deliverable definition of the entire work product.
In an implementation, such a deliverable definition can be defined by a
project leader. The deliverable definition, amongst other things, may
indicate the individual task definitions of a specific work product, such
as what are the sub modules of the entire work product that can be
completed individually. For example, the entire work product is divided
into smaller modules until the smallest module which can not be further
broken down is identified. These modules are also referred to as the
deliverable slices. In one implementation, the deliverable definition can
be predefined, and may vary with the nature and/or objective of the
project. For example, for engineering a banking application, the
deliverable definition may specify various functions in the form of
deliverable slices that are associated with a banking application, say
accounting, account verification, balance verification, web based user
interface, database management. Once the deliverable slices associated
with the project are identified, the deliverable slices can be further
defined by the competencies associated with it. For example, the
competencies can be in the form of the tasks that need to be performed in
order to build a deliverable slice are identified and listed.

[0019] In one implementation, the various competencies required for
building the various deliverable slices in order to further build the
entire work product, are listed in a project competency menu. For the
above example, for a deliverable banking application, the project
competency menu may list the relevant competencies, such as creating a
HTML page, java script validations, and database connection management.

[0020] Following the identification of the competencies required for all
the deliverable slices in the work product or the deliverable, suitable
employees are searched based on the identified competencies. In one
implementation, the suitable employees can be identified from a database.
In a further implementation, all the employees having a minimum level of
competence are searched from the database. The identified employees are
hereinafter referred to as candidate employees. Subsequently, all the
searched candidate employees are assigned a specific rote based on the
identified deliverable slices of the larger deliverable. For example, a
candidate employee may be allocated a role of creating a web based user
interface (deliverable slice) in the banking application (the larger
deliverable). Therefore, the candidate employee is responsible for
creating the web based user interface.

[0021] In a further implementation, all the competencies required by the
candidate employees, based on the allocated role and the deliverable
slice, are identified and listed in an employee competency menu. For
example, for an employee working on creating a web based user interface,
the employee competency menu will include competencies for building a
hyper text markup language (HTML) page, building strut tags, javascript
validations, etc. In one implementation, the employee competency menu
provides the competencies mapped to a specific requirement of a
deliverable slice, which indicate the process steps that need to be
performed in order to build the deliverable slice.

[0022] Subsequently, a plurality of competency building assets are
identified for building the required competencies in the candidate
employees. In said implementation, the competency building assets are
training materials and virtual project environments, which are aimed at
training the candidate employees and building the required competencies
in the employee based on the deliverable slices and the work product. In
one implementation, competency building assets are stored in a database
from where they can be extracted; however, if the competency building
assets are not available for some competencies, then they can be created
afresh.

[0023] In one implementation, the competency building asset is an
executable asset for each competency and defines the understanding of the
scope of the competencies. In a further implementation, the competency
building asset can be divided into three portions. The first portion of
the competency building assets contains the requirement definitions and
the quality characteristics needed, corresponding to the competencies,
and the deliverable slices. Further, the second portion of the competency
building asset includes the detailed process steps or the tasks that a
plurality of industry experts would use to execute in order to build the
deliverable slice for the fulfillment of the associated requirements.
Furthermore, the third portion of the competency building asset includes
the time standards for executing the process steps, considering the
practical realities and the project needs. For example, the time taken by
an expert, the maximum time allowed for the employee to execute the
process steps. In one implementation, the third portion of the competency
building asset is also referred to as the acceptance criteria for a
competency. Moreover, a precondition to the time compliance and the
acceptance criteria is that all the process steps listed in the
competency building asset are correctly executed.

[0024] In an implementation, such competency building assets are executed
by the candidate employees in order to gain or develop the desired
competence for the deliverable slice and the work product. As would be
appreciated by a person skilled in the art, the competence building
system as described herein reduces the training time. Additionally, the
resultant performance of the candidate employee in the competence
building exercise and relevant project performance bears a high
correlation. These and other aspects of the present subject matter are
described in detail in conjunction with FIGS. 1-3. While aspects of
systems and methods can be implemented in any number of different
computing systems environments, and/or configurations, the embodiments
are described in the context of the following exemplary system
architecture(s).

[0025]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary network environment 100 implementing a
competence building system 102 for building competencies in the employees
of an organization. The competence building system 102 as described
herein develops competence in the employees based on a specific work
product also referred to as a deliverable. In one implementation, the
network environment 100 includes the competence building system 102,
communicating through a network 104 with the various client devices
106-1, 106-2, to 106-N, hereinafter collectively referred to as client
devices 106. The competence building system 102 further includes a
deliverable definition module 108.

[0026] The network 104 may be implemented as a wireless network, wired
network or a combination thereof. The network 104 can be implemented as
one of the different types of networks, such as intranet, local area
network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, etc. The network
104 may either be a dedicated network or a shared network, which
represents an association of the different types of networks that use a
variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP), etc., to communicate with each other.
Further, the network 104 may include network devices, such as network
switches, hubs, routers, HBAs, for providing a link between the
competence building system 102, and the client devices 106. The network
devices within the network 104 may interact with the competence building
system 102, and the client devices 106 through communication links.

[0027] The competence building system 102 and the client devices 106 can
be implemented as any of a variety of computing devices including, for
example, servers, a desktop computer, a notebook or portable computer, a
workstation, a mainframe computer, a mobile computing device, an
entertainment device.

[0028] In operation, a deliverable definition module 108 of the competence
building system 102 receives one or more deliverable definitions of a
specific work product. In one implementation, the deliverable definitions
can either be configured by a user or can be generated based on a work
product received from a client. As mentioned previously, deliverable
definition provides one or more individual task definitions that may form
a part of the specific work product. In one implementation, the
deliverable definitions can be used for identification of various
competencies required for completing a specific work product. Once the
deliverable definitions are identified, the deliverable definition module
108 of the competence building system 102 generates reusable deliverable
slices based on the deliverable definitions. For example, a deliverable
definition corresponding to constructing a banking application may
include deliverable slices such as retail banking module, credit banking
module and the like. Further, another deliverable slice can be building a
web based user interface. In one implementation, the deliverable slices
can be generated by the competence building system 102 using an Offering
Competence Mapping (OCM) tool.

[0029] Further, in one implementation, the competence building system 102
identifies the competencies that the employees of an organization require
to complete the desired deliverable at a desired level of quality. For
this, the deliverable definition further defines a set of process steps
or tasks that need to be executed in order to build the deliverable
slice. These set of tasks define the competencies that are required by
the employees in order to build the deliverable slices. In one
implementation, all the competencies required by various deliverable
slices in the work product are listed in a project competency menu. The
project competency menu indicates a mapping of the competencies to the
deliverable slices of the work product.

[0030] Further, the competence building system 102 identifies one or more
employees having a threshold amount of competencies, based on the
deliverable definition. In one implementation, the employees can be
searched from a database or other similar repositories stored external or
internal to the competence building system 102. These searched employees
are hereinafter referred to as candidate employees. Further, the
competence building system 102 allocates specific roles to the candidate
employees based on the identified deliverable slices and the required
competencies. For example, a candidate employee may be assigned a role of
building a web based user interface (deliverable slice) for the banking
application (deliverable). Therefore, the candidate employee is
responsible only for the role assigned to him, and the employee must
possess all the competencies required for the deliverable slice and the
role allocated to him. In a further implementation, the competencies of
an employee based on the allocated role, are listed in an employee
competency menu.

[0031] Once all the competencies required for every deliverable slice, the
entire work product and the candidate employees are identified, the
competence building system 102 searches and extracts a plurality of
relevant competency building assets that are to be provided for building
the identified competencies in the candidate employees. For example, the
competence building assets can be pre-stored in a database. In a further
implementation, if the competence building system 102 does not find any
relevant competence building asset in the database, then the relevant
competence building assets can be created afresh.

[0032] Subsequently, the competence building system 102 executes the
extracted competence building assets in order to develop the desired
competence in the candidate employees. In one implementation, the
competence building asset comprises of three portions. A first portion of
the competency building asset contains the requirement definitions
corresponding to the competencies and the deliverable slices. Further, a
second portion of the competency building asset includes a set of
detailed process steps or the tasks that a plurality of industry experts
would execute in order to build the deliverable slice for the fulfillment
of the associated requirements. Furthermore, a third portion of the
competency building asset includes the time standards for executing the
process steps, considering the practical realities and the deliverable
needs. For example, the time taken by the employee is compared with the
time taken by an expert, or the maximum time allowed for the employee to
execute the process steps. In one implementation, the third portion of
the competency building asset is also referred to as the acceptance
criteria for a competency. Moreover, a precondition to the time
conformance and the acceptance criteria, is that all the process steps
listed in the competency building asset are correctly executed.

[0033] It will be appreciated that the competency building assets are
aimed at training the candidate employees for a desired competence and
developing the desired competence in the candidate employees. In a
further implementation, the competency building asset can be in the form
of training resources like a virtual environment for executing the
deliverable slice, templates, mock tests, and study materials. In one
implementation, the training once completed, can be further assessed or
evaluated. Based on the evaluation, the competence building system 102
can further suggest additional training or can provide an indication that
the candidate employee possesses a threshold amount of competence and is
capable of providing the deliverable slice with a desired level of
quality.

[0034] In a further implementation, the performance of the candidate
employee during the training can be compared to that of an expert. For
example, one of the parameters for comparison can be the time taken to do
the task by the individual versus that of the expert, as set in the third
portion of the competency building assets. Also, the acceptance criterion
may vary from one competence to another and from one project deliverable
slice to another. For example, if the employee performs the task in less
or equivalent time and of equivalent quality as that of an expert, then
the candidate employee is said to meet the acceptance criterion. In case
the candidate employee fails to meet the acceptance criteria, another
employee can then be selected based on their performance and/or
assessment made during training. In a yet another implementation, in case
the candidate employee fails to meet the acceptance criterion, he can
iteratively take the training until he meets the acceptance criterion. In
one implementation, once the candidate employee meets the acceptance
criteria, he can be certified as a competent employee for providing the
deliverable slice with a desired level of quality. These and other
aspects are explained in detail in conjunction with FIG. 2.

[0035] FIG. 2 illustrates a competence building system 102, in accordance
with an embodiment of the present subject matter. In said embodiment, the
competence building system 102 includes a processor 202, I/O interface(s)
204, and a memory 206. The processor 202 may be implemented as one or
more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal
processors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries,
and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational
instructions. Among other capabilities, the processor 202 is configured
to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory
206.

[0036] The I/O interface(s) 204 may include a variety of software and
hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface allowing the competence
building system 102 to interact with the client devices 106. Further, the
interface(s) 204 may enable the competence building system 102 to
communicate with other computing devices, such as web servers and
external repositories or databases. The interface(s) 204 can facilitate
multiple communications within a wide variety of networks and protocol
types, including wired networks, for example LAN, cable, etc., and
wireless networks such as WLAN, cellular, or satellite. The interface(s)
204 may include one or more ports for connecting a number of client
devices 106 to each other or to another server.

[0037] The memory 206 can include any computer-readable medium known in
the art including, for example, volatile memory (e.g., RAM), and/or
non-volatile memory (e.g., EPROM, flash memory, etc.). The memory 206
includes one or more module(s) 208 and data 210. In one embodiment, the
module 208 further includes a competence identification module 212, the
deliverable definition module 108, and other module(s) 214.

[0038] The data 210 serves, amongst other things, as a repository for
storing data processed, received and generated by the one or more of the
module(s) 208. The data 210 includes, for example, deliverable slices
216, competency data 218, employee data 220, resources 222, and other
data 224. In an example, the deliverable slices 216, the competence data
218, the employee data 220 and the resources 222, may be stored in the
memory 206 in the form of data structures.

[0039] In operation, the competence building system 102 receives
information describing the work product (hereinafter referred to as a
deliverable) to be completed by the employees of the organization. It
will be appreciated that systems and methods described in the present
description can be used for increasing the competencies of other
personnel, such as trainees, members who are on probation, etc., and not
restricted to employees of an organization only.

[0040] The information in relation to the entire work product can be
received in the form of deliverable definitions. The deliverable
definitions, amongst other aspects, indicate the various individual tasks
and functionalities that are required to be implemented for completing
the deliverable. The deliverable definition module 108 receives the
deliverable definitions. In one implementation, the deliverable
definitions can be specified as an extensible markup language (XML) file
listing the various tasks that form part of the deliverable work product
that is related to the deliverable definitions. In one implementation,
the deliverable definitions can be stored in other data 224.

[0041] In further implementation, the deliverable definition module 108
divides the entire work product into one or more deliverable slices 216.
The deliverable slices 216 can be further divided into deliverable
sub-slices, and so on. In said implementation, every deliverable slice
has a plurality of requirement specifications associated with it.
Furthermore, every deliverable slice requires a plurality of tasks to be
completed in order to fulfill the requirement definition associated with
that deliverable slice. These tasks for every deliverable slices, when
collectively performed would constitute the process steps that would be
required for the completion of the entire work product. These tasks
individually indicate the competencies that define the deliverable slices
216. In said implementation, the competencies are stored in the form of
competency data 218. For example, `Create Login Page` is a deliverable
slice for the entire work project web based banking applications.
Therefore, the deliverable slice 216 involving creation of a login page
would be defined by a plurality of competencies 218 like building Hyper
Text Markup Language (HTML) Page, building strut tags, JavaScript
validations and some tasks like input hard code data, compile the code
etc.

[0042] The deliverable definition module 108 on receiving the deliverable
definitions and the deliverable slices 216, obtains the reusable
competency data 218 based on the received deliverable definitions. In one
implementation, the deliverable definition module 108 parses through the
deliverable definitions to generate the deliverable slices 216 which, in
turn, map to competencies 218. As indicated previously, the competency
data 218 indicate a set of reusable tasks that have their own standalone
requirements. The competency data 218 can be considered as tasks that are
to be performed at the lowest level of granularity. In that case, tasks
corresponding to such competencies 218 can be such that they are also
applicable to other similar deliverables. For example, competencies 218
corresponding to web-page designing would be applicable for a variety of
work products, such as banking applications, CRM-based applications, etc.

[0043] In said implementation, the competencies 218 indicates the
competencies that are required by an employee working for the desired
work product and its deliverable slice 216. For example for a deliverable
slice "creating a web page" a specific competence pertaining to HTML
based web creation is required by the employee. It should be noted that
similar to the deliverable slices 216, the competencies 218 may also be
standalone. Moreover, each of the competencies 218 will necessarily have
identified requirements corresponding to the deliverable slices 216.

[0044] In one implementation, the deliverable slices 216 and the
competency data 218 are defined using an Offering Competence Mapping
(OCM) tool. An exemplary Offering Competence Map is shown below as Table
1. For the relevant work product, one or more deliverable slices 216 can
be identified. In another implementation, the deliverable definition
module 108 can receive the deliverable definitions in the form of an XML
or other compatible manner. In such a case, the deliverable definition
module 108 can parse through the XML to determine the relevant
deliverable slices, and store the same as deliverable slices 216.

[0045] In a further implementation, all the competencies 218 for the
various deliverable slices 216 of the entire deliverable are listed in a
project competency menu. The project competency menu may be stored in
other data 224.

[0046] In a further implementation, the competence identification module
212 identifies one or more employees having a threshold amount of
competencies based on the received work product, the identified
deliverable slices 216 and the identified competencies 218. Further, the
competence identification module 212 allocates one or more roles to the
identified candidate employees. For example, an employee may be allocated
a role of user interface designer, which indicates that the employee is
responsible only for the deliverable slice 216 involving user interface
design for the web based banking application. Therefore, based on the
role allocated to the employee, a plurality of competencies 218 are also
identified for the employee. For example, for the deliverable slice 216
user interface design, the employee must possess the competencies for
creating a HTML page, javascript validations, and session management.
Further, the competencies needed by every employee are listed in an
employee competence menu which is stored in the employee data 220.

[0047] The identified candidate employees may be subjected to a variety of
resources for building or enhancing their competencies. The competence
identification module 212 determines the resources that would be required
for building or enhancing the competencies of the candidate employees. In
one implementation, the competence identification module 212 searches for
the relevant resources within the resources 222. The resources 222,
amongst other things, may include a one or more competency building
assets that would be instrumental for building or enhancing the
competencies of the candidate employees. The resources 222 may include
material that can either be instruction based or can be assessment based.
Examples of instruction based resources include, but are not limited to,
training manuals, textbooks, instructions, etc. As is described earlier,
the competency building assets include process steps that an expert would
use for realizing one or more requirements that are associated with the
deliverable slices 216. Also the competency building assets include the
acceptance criterion as set in accordance with the performance of the
expert. The competence identification module 212 selects the relevant
material from resources 222 based on the identified competencies 218.

[0048] The materials selected from the resources 222 can then be provided
to the candidate employees. The candidate employees can go through the
material for increasing their competencies. The level of the competencies
218 of the candidate employees can further be assessed to determine
whether the employees possess the desired level of competencies to ensure
a quality work product. In one implementation, the competence
identification module 212 can periodically or systematically assess the
change in the competencies of the candidate employees as a result of
providing the materials selected from resources 222. In one
implementation, resources 222 can also be located externally to the
competence building system 108, such as an external data store.

[0049] In one implementation, the competence identification module 212 can
also provide the candidate employees with competency building assets to
simulate the tasks that the employees are likely to face while completing
a deliverable work project. In one implementation, the competence
identification module 212 can evaluate the performance of the candidate
employees with respect to certain benchmark parameters. The benchmark
parameters can be the performance of an expert during such test cases.
Depending on relative performance of the candidate employees with respect
to the performance of the expert, the employees can be considered to meet
the acceptance criteria and possess the required competencies for
completion of the deliverable work product. In a further implementation,
the candidate employee can be trained iteratively until he meets the
acceptance criteria. In one implementation, the candidate employee can be
certified on meeting the acceptance criteria.

[0050] It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art the training
resources provided for the candidate employees would be specific to the
granular requirements that were associated with the deliverable slices
216. Furthermore, the candidate employees were also selected based on the
granular requirements associated with the deliverable slices 216. In such
a case, since the selection of the candidate employees and the selection
of the material from resources 222 is based on the deliverable slices
216, the competence building of the candidate employees is more focused
and is likely to build or enhance the competencies of the employees at an
increased rate. The resultant performance of the candidate employee in
the competence building exercise and relevant project performance bears a
high correlation.

[0051]FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method 300 for building competence
in an employee of an organization, in accordance with the present subject
matter. The exemplary method 300 may be described in the general context
of computer executable instructions. The method 300 may be a computer
implementable method. Generally, computer executable instructions can
include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,
procedures, modules, functions, and the like that perform particular
functions or implement particular abstract data types. The method may
also be practiced in a distributed computing environment where functions
are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a
communication network. In a distributed computing environment, computer
executable instructions may be located in both local and remote computer
storage media, including memory storage devices.

[0052] The order in which the method is described is not intended to be
construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks
can be combined in any order to implement the method, or an alternate
method. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the method
without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter
described herein. Furthermore, the method can be implemented in any
suitable hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof.

[0053] In accordance with one embodiment of the present subject matter,
the method 300 may be implemented in the previously described competence
building system 102. However, it will be appreciated by one skilled in
the art that such an implementation is not limiting.

[0054] At block 302, a deliverable definition is received. For example,
the competence building system 102 receives deliverable definitions. In
one implementation, a deliverable definition module 108 receives a
plurality of deliverable definitions. As indicated previously,
deliverable definition provides one or more individual task definitions
that may form a part of a specific work product (also referred to as a
deliverable). In one implementation, the deliverable definitions can be
stored in the other data 224. In another implementation, the deliverable
definitions can be in the form of an XML file.

[0055] At block 304, a plurality of deliverable slices are identified
based on the deliverable definitions. For example, deliverable definition
module 108 identifies the plurality of deliverable slices, stored as
deliverable slices 216, based on the received deliverable definitions of
the work product. As described earlier, the deliverable slices 216 can be
considered as integrated sets of tasks that are intended to meet specific
requirement definitions in a context and have related qualities defined.
The deliverable slices 216 are to be performed at the lowest level of
granularity and are generally in a reusable form. In one implementation,
the deliverable slices 216 can be generated based on an OCM tool.

[0056] Further, at block 306, competencies associated with the identified
deliverable slices are determined. For example, competence identification
module 212 identifies the required competencies associated with one or
more of the deliverable slices 216. In one implementation, the
competencies can be identified based on competency data 218. The
identified competencies can be considered to be the competencies that the
employees must have, to successfully complete the task requirements of
the identified deliverable slices. In a further implementation, the
competencies identified for the entire work product are listed in a
project competency menu which is stored in the other data 224.

[0057] At block 308, a plurality of employees are identified based on the
identified competencies and the identified deliverable slices. For
example, the competence identification module 212 identifies one or more
employees within an organization based on employee data 220. The
identified employees are those that are most likely to possess the
required competencies in order to meet the work requirements of the
deliverable slice, such as the ones associated with the deliverable
slices 216. In one implementation, the competence building system 102
list the identified employees in the order of their competencies. Based
on a threshold number, or a number as selected by a user, finite number
of candidate employees can be chosen for building or enhancing their
competencies. Further, a specific role based on the deliverable slices
216 is allocated to the candidate employees. For example, a candidate
employee may be allocated a role of creating a web based user interface
which is a deliverable slice 216 of the entire work project.
Subsequently, the competencies required by the employee based on the
allocated role, are listed in an employee competency menu. The employee
competency menu is further stored in the employee data 220. In one
implementation, the candidate employees can be identified based on a
listing of the plurality of competencies that are required for the
project defined as competencies menus. The competencies menus will
include a combined and unique list of competencies that all different
roles defined for one or more employees must possess in order to deliver
the requirements of the project. As would be appreciated, that such
competencies would be derived from the identified deliverables of the
project and the deliverable slices it comprises of.

[0058] At block 310, a plurality of resources corresponding to the
identified deliverable slices and the identified competencies, are
determined. For example, the competence identification module 212
determines the resources that would be required for building or enhancing
the competencies of the candidate employees. In one implementation, the
competence identification module 212 searches for the relevant resources
within the resources 222. The resources 222, amongst other things, may
include material that would be instrumental for building or enhancing the
competencies of the candidate employees. Examples of such materials
include, but are not limited to, a plurality of executable competency
building assets in the form of virtual environments for executing the
deliverable slices, mock tests, questionnaires, manuals, quizzes. The
resources 222 can be also be prepared by a number of industry experts.
The content of the resources 222 can be so chosen so as simulate the
tasks that the candidate employees are more likely to face during the
course of completing a deliverable work product.

[0059] At block 312, it is determined whether the identified candidate
employees meet an acceptance criterion or not. For example, the
competence identification module 212 provides the employees with the
materials, such as tests, selected from the resources 222. The competence
identification module 212 further determines whether the employees meet
an acceptance criterion, based on an assessment of the performance of the
employee, say in the test. The competence identification module 212,
depending on the performance of the candidate employees, say during the
tests, can determine the employees which meet the acceptance criteria. In
further implementation, the extracted resources are used to present mock
environments such as mock tests, study materials etc., to the employee.

[0060] If the user is found to meet the acceptance criteria (`Yes` path
from block 312), the user is considered to possess the required
competencies for completing a desired deliverable slice for the work
product (block 314). For example, if on a time bound exercise if the
candidate employee performs the task correctly in a lesser time as
compared to an expert, the candidate employee would be considered to meet
the acceptance criterion. In one implementation, the candidate employee
is a certified employee set to be competent for providing the deliverable
slice with a desired level of quality.

[0061] If on the other hand, it is determined that one or more of the
identified candidate employees do not meet the acceptance criteria (`No`
path from block 312), additional resources are provided to the employees
for increasing their respective competencies as is shown in block 316.
For example, the competence identification module 212 can, on an
assessment, further provide material selected from resources 222. The
method then proceeds to block 312 where a further evaluation is made to
determine whether the employees have met the acceptance criteria. For
example, the competence identification module 212 can continue the
assessment of the employees for a fixed number of cycles, or till the
time the performance of the candidate employees meet the acceptance
criteria.

[0062] Although embodiments for competence building have been described in
language specific to structural features and/or methods, it is to be
understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to the specific
features or methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods
are disclosed as exemplary implementations for competence building.